Notices by Jason Evangelho (killyourfm@layer8.space), page 2

Whoo boy. The performance hit changes drastically when stepping up to my gaming laptop. (Asus ROG Strix G15 running Bazzite 40 with Ryzen 9 5980HX + Radeon 6800M)

Running Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1440p with the Highest quality preset, I did two benchmark runs with Game Recording on and off, recording results from the 2nd run to ensure hardware was nice and toasty.

The reduction in performance this time was a whopping 37%!

Back to the Steam Deck for now, testing Cyberpunk 2077 (using the Steam Deck quality preset). Can confirm the EXACT same performance hit of 5% (producing an average 42FPS during the benchmark) when switching on Game Recording. Which is an impressive result!

(Next up, I'll bounce back to the gaming laptop for Shadow of the Tomb Raider -- but this time running it at the same resolution and quality settings from the Steam Deck runs.)

OK, so back to the gaming laptop and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Does that massive 37% performance hit scale down as expected when lowering resolution and quality?

I reduced the output to 720p on my gaming laptop and switched to the Medium quality preset to somewhat mirror the Steam Deck test.

I'm now seeing a performance hit of 19% when enabling Game Mode. I still think it should be considerably less on hardware this powerful 🤔

Thoughts?

More testing required!

(thanks for the idea @root)

I'm testing Steam Game Recording on Windows now. This is Shadow of the Tomb Raider with the same 1440p/Highest setting as on Linux/Bazzite. Here, you can see the performance hit is only 13% with background game recording ON.

This is the way it *should* be, so I'm convinced Steam on Bazzite is using software encoding and not hardware encoding for this AMD RX 6800M.

I'll definitely be testing this on another more vanilla distro to see how things compare.

Let's do some performance testing of #Steam Game Recording!

Starting off on #SteamDeck LCD with Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I ran the benchmark at MED quality preset with Game Recording off, then Background Game Recording on and recorded results for the *2nd* run of each. I also ran each set of benchmarks twice to ensure I saw the same results.

For this example, we're seeing a 5% performance hit.

(In results screen, you can see the GPU working just a bit harder w/ recording on.)

More to come.

I used to run a little #Linux magazine over at Medium. Surprisingly, it has had more than 200,000 views since we *stopped* producing content for it in 2021.

https://medium.com/linuxforeveryone

As I explore dipping my toes back into Linux and FOSS coverage, I'm curious what you all think about Medium in 2024?

(I haven't touched it in 3 years, and publishing platforms like this haven't been on my radar, so don't hold back with your opinions -- I'm genuinely curious).

The dream team.
They deserve another shot.

If there's one video I'd point to that makes me sorely miss doing a @Linux4Everyone channel, it's this one. By far the most fun I've ever had producing content:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnqRJOJGWGA

The first few hours with my ROG Ally were rough, and that's being kind.

By the numbers:
10 to 12 screens of Windows setup steps.
3 screens trying to sell me Office 365/Onedrive/GamePass.
4 reboots for Windows updates.
2 reboots for Armory Crate/firmware/BIOS updates.

I kinda love the Command Center shortcuts here. Especially the ability to quickly switch refresh rate (120hz and 60hz) and resolution (720p, 900p, 1080p).

The grid is customizable, which is appreciated

I figured a good first game to test would be DOOM (2016), and I ended up sinking two hours into it right off the bat. Absolutely a SUBLIME experience playing that game on a portable 1080p/120hz display. I got 90+ FPS on Ultra quality which blew my mind.

Also, VRR is a game-changer for me. This was by far the smoothest I've ever seen DOOM (your mileage may vary of course).

Also, I quite like the offset thumbsticks and appreciate that they have a LITTLE BIT less resistance than the Deck's sticks. Although the Ally in general doesn't feel as comfortable in my hands as Steam Deck.

Armory Crate is effectively your universal game launcher, but some of the defaults are baffling. Like, why is the actual Steam launcher under "Other" but Steam games are under "Steam?"

And I think ASUS does an admirable job trying to put a layer of usability on top of Windows 11 since it's not remotely user-friendly on handheld devices. However, I frequently get the feeling of "one hand not talking to the other."

It's not a harmonious user experience. It's one that feels brute-forced in as a patchwork of band-aids.

Also, this has mostly been my experience when connected to an external monitor.

Overall, I love the performance based on what I've played. I love the aesthetic of the hardware. I like the colorful face buttons. It's a promising device, but it's not living up to its potential because Windows makes it cumbersome.

Cumbersome AND broken. As I type this, the gamepad controls have stopped working across the board. One minute they were, then they weren't. Multiple reboots haven't solved it and not sure I have patience to solve it.

For all intents and purposes, it is bricked.

And so, after less than a day, the next phase of my #ROGAlly journey begins.
Let's see if a #Linux alternative OS can fulfill this device's potential, because I really do think it has great potential. . .

#Bazzite

So, now the unexpectedly arduous task of getting to a point where I can even install Bazzite on the ROG Ally...

Despite turning off Bitlocker, disabling the virtual page file, disabling system restore, cleaning all temp files, and defragging the drive, Windows will only let me shrink 70GB of the 350GB that are free.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Progress! This is exciting!

(I used a free third party app called AIMEI Partition Assistant to shrink the Windows partition).

Holy crap! I feel like a wizard!
Now for some configuration…

(I’m donating to the Bazzite team after this. They’re the real wizards)